In the simple, good life, one of the values is to create a moment. The challenge is to make it earth, body and budget friendly. Through the ages many cultures and people groups have gotten that right. The Japanese have a tea-ritual. The Ethiopians have a coffee ritual. The Colonials started sundowners. Some Asians have a chewing ritual. Cherokees have a communal pipe smoking ritual. Mankind have a need to create a “moment”. The components of a “moment” usually is like a comma in a sentence, a pause button for life, a grounding. A clear, open (although short) space with certain definite components: beauty, community, repetition, silence (or little noise), feelings of rest, repose and safety.
The difference between a cup of tea and a moment could be using a teapot rather than a bag in every cup. It can be a candle on the dining room table, rather than using the electric light. It can be using serviettes or napkins, rather than the kitchen wet cloth. It can be putting a simple desert rose on a tray. It can be drinking from a glass, rather than a plastic cup. It can be breaking the slab of chocolate into blocks and serving it out of a pretty bowl, rather than eating it from the wrapper. It can be moving the meal away from the TV to the table, where everyone sits together. It can be picking beautiful grasses and putting it into a pretty bottle. No need for expensive flowers. It can be pretty stones arranged on a plate, rather than expensive ornaments.
It means looking. Really looking. Look until you see beauty. It means pausing. Really pausing. Disciplining yourself until you are able to really pause. It means including, finding community. Finding a person or people to share the “moment” with you. Don’t keep it selfishly for yourself. Share the moment. Share the beauty, share the pause. Make memories out of a series of “moments”, like beads on a string. It becomes habit, and it becomes life. It is often repetitive. Things done a thousand times over, like making tea, becomes part of our muscle memory. It frees the mind and the thoughts to take flight. The repetitive act feels safe, and from that place of safety we can think higher thoughts. We can imagine, we can sort through anxiety or worry, we can get a greater level of inner calm. A repetitive moment can “ground” us. To create a moment brings rest. Even if it is just 10 minutes.
